TSA Whistleblowers Named Public Servants of the Year. Exposing Misconduct.

TSA Whistleblowers Named Public Servants of the Year

September 20, 2018

The Office of Special Counsel has named three TSA employees as winners of its Public Servants of the Year award for blowing the whistle on “systemic deficiencies and lax airport security protocols that were largely dismissed by TSA leadership.”

F. Michael Abreu, Heather Callahan Chuck, Sharlene Mata each served as deputy federal security directors for the TSA in Hawaii. After Mata and Chuck made their disclosures in 2014, the OSC said, the agency “wrongly blamed” them for poor leadership and when Abreu “refused to give untrue information about his colleagues, TSA unfairly concluded that he was aligned with them.” All three were then “punitively reassigned” to distant facilities–Mata to Seattle, Callahan Chuck to Los Angeles and Abreu to Burbank–it said.

The materials on this website are for general information purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice, legal opinion or any other advice on any specific facts or circumstances. Readers should not act or refrain from acting upon this information without seeking professional advice. Transmission of information on or by use of this website is not intended to create, and receipt does not constitute, a lawyer-client relationship between the sender and receiver.